Shalev heads south to CBS

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TORONTO -- Veteran Canadian news and current affairs producer Zev Shalev will parachute into New York to help run CBS' "The Early Show" after the recent departure of producer Shelley Ross.

Rick Kaplan, executive producer of "CBS Evening News" and interim head of the morning news show, said Thursday that Shalev, most recently vp strategic programming at CanWest Media, will become senior broadcast producer for "Early Show" on Monday.

Shalev, whose CanWest responsibilities also included senior executive producer of information and entertainment programming, will help fill a void created this month when Ross departed as producer of the CBS morning show after less than six months in the post.

It is understood that there likely will be one other senior broadcast producer alongside Shalev to run the show and that Kaplan will retain overall responsibility after the transition.

At CanWest Media, where the Israel-born Shalev also launched and ran "Entertainment Tonight Canada," a spokeswoman said the network was saddened by his departure yet "extremely happy for him with this amazing step in his career."